Conventional handheld power tools have a switching annulus gear assigned to a planetary gear set. In conventional handheld power tools, the first gear, this switching annulus gear may be in a first switching position, e.g., axially spaced apart from a planet carrier of a first planetary stage and be operatively meshed with a blocking element to enable a rotational speed reduction by the planetary gear set, and in the second gear it may be in a second switching position, e.g., spaced apart from the blocking element and operatively meshed with the planet carrier to prevent the rotational speed reduction by the planetary gear set.
The disadvantage is that the switching annulus gear is rotatably fixedly situated in an appropriate gear housing of the handheld power tool in the first gear of the planetary gear set of such a handheld power tool and must be operatively meshed with the planet carrier of the first planetary stage during the switchover into the second gear, the planet carrier rotating at a rotational speed assigned to the first gear. In this case, since an at least generally idle internal toothing of the switching annulus gear must mesh with the external toothing of the planet carrier rotating at the assigned rotational speed, it may occur that, on the one hand, an appropriate switchover process is not possible or, however, that, on the other hand, it may result both in unfavorable wear on the toothings and in an undesirable noise generation.